A chanceless century from Virat Kohli powered Royal Challengers Bangalore to their third win of VIVO IPL 2016. Given a challenging target of 192, Kohli started slowly respecting the conditions upfront, before taking charge at the right time to score his second century of the season; his unbeaten 108 helped RCB chase down the runs in the final over, with seven wickets in hand.
Virat was sensational, yet again. The RCB captain looked in control of the chase at all times; he started cautiously before opening his shoulders soon after the field restrictions were relaxed. He drove fluently through the off-side, muscled the ball down the ground and ran hard between the wickets. Every time he attempted a stroke, the ball appeared to make contact with the middle of his bat. He remained focused, despite losing a few partners at the other end, and took the bull by the horns just when it was needed. With 40 runs needed of the final three overs, Adam Zampa was entrusted the ball, and Virat decided that was the over to go; he hit two sixes off the first two balls – one to the midwicket boundary and followed that up with a stunning straight six. Two balls later, he picked up a boundary through point, and all of a sudden the task in front was manageable.
In the 19th over, RP Singh was at the receiving end as Virat dispatched a leg-stump delivery over the ropes and in the following delivery brought up his hundred in style, hitting one straight into the sightscreens. En route, the RCB captain broke a few milestones; he became the first player to breach the 500-run mark this season, did so in the fewest innings ever – 8, and even went past 6000 runs in T20 cricket.
There were other useful contributions in RCB’s chase; KL Rahul contributed a 35-ball 38 and stitched together a 94-run partnership – RCB’s best of the season, while Shane Watson chipped in with a 13-ball 36 which largely helped in keeping the required run rate in check. RCB got over the line in 19.3 overs, losing only three wickets in the process.
Debutant Adam Zampa (2-35) was the most impressive of the RPS bowlers; the Australian leggie went for a few runs in his final over, but was good overall, picking up two wickets in one particular over.
Earlier in the evening, RCB poor show in the field contributed largely in allowing RPS, who were put in to bat, to post 191-6. Ajinkya Rahane scored his sixth half-century of the season, while Saurabh Tiwary scored 52, and the 106-run partnership between them was the cornerstone of RPS’ innings. Both batsmen were lucky on the day; Rahane was put down on 4, while Tiwary was put down twice in two deliveries when he had just 19 runs to his name. RCB were sloppy in the ground fielding department too, conceding a few boundaries and not calling for catches.
Eventually, RPS finished at 191-6 – 53 of those runs coming in the last five overs. For RCB, Shane Watson was the pick of the bowlers; he picked up three wickets – including that of Rahane and MS Dhoni – in a wonderful spell of bowling. Chris Jordan returned figures of 4-0-43-1 on his IPL debut, while Yuzvendra Chahal (4-0-38-1) bowled three excellent overs before getting punished for 16 runs in his final over.
Brief Scores
Rising Pune Supergiants 191-6 in 20.0 Overs (Ajinkya Rahane 74, Saurabh Tiwary 52, Shane Watson 3-24)
Royal Challengers Bangalore 195-3 in 19.3 Overs (Virat Kohli 108*, Adam Zampa 2-35) by 7 wickets.
Man of the Match: Virat Kohli, for his match-winning 108*
